Carole Gaskamp photo
The Kenedy Lions defeated the Port Aransas Marlins 6-4 in the final game of the season to win a share of first place in district. The Lions will have the first place bye and Port Aransas will go into the playoffs as second place. From left, are Coach Bell, Jordan Valdez, Kristofer Bryan, Ray J Garza, Isaac Cruz, Nathan DelosSantos, Sheldon Hons, Rolie Zepeda, Bryant Tiemann, J D DelosSantos, Eddie Villarreal, Jacob Asebedo, Dominic Cruz, Jeremy Rodriguez, Coach Hajovsky, Coach Cisneros

On Tuesday April 16th the Kenedy Lions traveled to Pettus for the second round match up with the Eagles.

The Lions would make short work of the number pitcher for the Eagles as they scored 12 runs on 11 hits.

A 6 run second inning would be all the Lions pitcher Dominic Cruz would need as he gave up only 1 hit in 4 innings of work and striking out 11.

Rolie Zepeda would finish off the 5th inning striking out 2 in his three batters faced to secure the 12-1 win for the Lions.

Leading the way at the plate was Jeremy Rodriguez and Kris Bryan who both went 2for3.

Dominic and Isaac Cruz both went 2for4. JD De Los Santos and Eddie Villarreal would both go 1for2.

Zepeda would round out the offensive attack for the Lions going 1for3.

On Friday April 19th the Kenedy Lions hosted the Three Rivers Bulldogs on the last official home game of the 2013 season.

It would be a good parent’s night for the seniors as they would defeat the Bulldogs 19-3 and force a showdown with the Port Aransas Marlins for the district championship on Saturday.

Isaac Cruz would pick up his 4th district victory on the mound as he struck out 7 and gave up only 3 hits.

Leading the way at the plate for the Lions was Jeremy Rodriguez who went 3for4.

Isaac Cruz and Jacob Asebedo both would go 2for3. Rolie Zepeda and RayJ Garza would both go 1for2.

JD De Los Santos would go 1for3. Dominic Cruz and Eddie Villarreal would both go 1for4.

Bryant Tiemann would come in for 1 at bat and knock a base hit in his only appearance. With the win the Lions moved to 10-1 in district 31-A play and 20-3 on the year.

Saturday April 20th the Kenedy Lions hosted the Port Aransas Marlins for a chance to split the district championship and would do so behind the 6 and 2/3 innings of pitching from senior Rolie Zepeda who would strike out 6 and give up 6 hits with 4 unearned runs.

With the win Zepeda would finish off district play at 4-0.

The Lions would take the lead in the first inning as the Port A pitcher would have trouble finding the plate and walk Zepeda, give up a hit to Dominic Cruz, then walk the bases loaded with the free pass to Isaac Cruz.

A pass ball would plate Zepeda which would follow with a pop fly single by RayJ Garza which plated Dom.

On the throw home it would sail to the back stop to plate another. Eddie Villarreal would smash a ball in the right side hole that would get knocked down and plate another run. In the second inning the Lions would take a 6-0 lead as a walk to Dom and then a base hit by Isaac would plate his brother.

A walk to Villarreal would make it first and second and Jeremy Rodriguez would take a 0-2 pitch to right field to bring in Isaac.

In the top of the third the Marlins would score 2 unearned runs behind one throwing error.

The Lions would get a runner on in the third, fourth, and fifth but the Marlins starter would settle down and end any threat.

Things would get excited in the top of the seventh as the Marlins would start the inning off with a base hit but he would be erased for the first out with a great throw from Rodriguez to Isaac at third for the first out.

A walk would follow with a steal of second. A pop up to second would record the second out. Then the wheels came off the train as the hard grounder to short which went through short and then left field to score the run instead of recording the final out.

A base hit would follow that to right to plate the second run of the inning to make it 6-4 with the tying run coming to the plate.

Dominic Cruz would come in to relieve Zepeda and get the final out and save as he got the hitter to ground to second and Garza would toss it to Villarreal to secure the split. Instead of playing a playoff game both coaches agreed to be co-champs for district 31-A and flip for position in the playoff bracket.

With the flip Kenedy would go in the number 1 spot and Port A would go in the top half of the bracket as the number 2.

So with the win the Lions finished the regular season 11-1 in district and 21-3 overall.

The Lions now get the first round bye and will play some warm up games following the testing week and regional track meet.

As of now we are looking to play Saturday April 27th at home and we play Ben Bolt on Tuesday April 30th at home with a 7:15 start and possibly another game on Saturday May 4th. Our first playoff game will be on May 10th or 11th.